1-3. Divine Energies in Scripture

 

1. What Are Divine Energies?

• “Energy” (ἐνέργεια and its verbal forms) in Scripture means the actual activity or operation of a spiritual agent (God, angels, demons) rather than a created “force.”
  
  

• Western translations often render these words as “work,” “working,” “operation,” “effectual,” etc., which can hide the unity of the biblical theme.
  
  

• In the Fathers (Basil, Gregory of Nyssa, Palamas) God’s properties—goodness, wisdom, power, providence—are called energies: uncreated ways in which God truly acts and is present to creation.
  
  

2. Receiving an Energy: Synergy

The video stresses that Scripture often speaks of creatures receiving an energy (ἐνεργεῖσθαι, ἐνεργουμένη) from a higher spiritual source.

Example: Synergy in St Paul

Colossians 1:29
Greek (NA28):
εἰς ὃ καὶ κοπιῶ ἀγωνιζόμενος κατὰ τὴν ἐνέργειαν αὐτοῦ τὴν ἐνεργουμένην ἐν ἐμοὶ ἐν δυνάμει.

English:
“For which I toil, striving according to his energy which is energized in me in power.”

• Paul really labors, but at the same time God’s own ἐνέργεια is at work in him; this is Scripture’s language for synergy—our activity penetrated and elevated by God’s activity.
  
  

3. Power and Energy

• Power (δύναμις) is the capacity belonging to the divine nature.
  
  

• Energy (ἐνέργεια) is that power actually exercised in time according to God’s free will.
  
  

St Gregory Palamas (as cited) uses creation as an example: God eternally has the power to create, but creation begins when that power is freely actualized as energy.